On that fateful Saturday morning, when Glaswegian John McDermott left for work for another painting job in Eastbourne, DCI Jack Buchanan was preparing for the first barbeque in his new home thinking his days of being a policeman in Glasgow were over. But it wasn't to be, while Buchanan browned the chicken on his barbeque, John McDermott's body went headfirst through a garage roof on its downwards travel from the scaffolding seven floors above.
And so it was, as John McDermott's body rested in the Eastbourne morgue, the long arm of history reached out to draw Buchanan back to Glasgow and a showdown with the Busby Gang.